UPSC Cancels Provisional Candidature Of Puja Khedkar, Debars Her Permanently From All Future Exams

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has cancelled the provisional candidature of controversial IAS trainee Puja Khedkar.

Further, she has also been debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/selections of the UPSC.

In a statement on Wednesday (31 July),  the Commission said that it had issued Show Cause Notice (SCN) to Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of the Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022) on 18 July, 2024 for fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the examination Rules by faking her identity.

Khedkar was to submit her response to the SCN by 25 July. However, she requested for further time till 4 August so that she could gather the necessary documents for her response.

"The UPSC carefully considered the request of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar and in order to meet the ends of justice, she was granted time till 3:30 pm of 30 July 2024 so as to enable her to submit the response to the SCN," the Commission said.

It was also categorically made clear to Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar that it was last and final opportunity to her and no further extension in time would be allowed, the Commission added.

Further, the Commission also conveyed to her that if no response was received by the deadline set by it, the UPSC would take further action without entertaining any further reference from her.

"Despite extension in time allowed to her, she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time," the UPSC said in the statement.

"The UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules. Her provisional candidature for the CSE-2022 has been cancelled and she has also been debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC," the Commission said.

Further, the UPSC said that it has thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of the CSEs from the year 2009 to 2023 i.e. for 15 years with respect to the number of attempts availed by them.

"After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Ms. Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules," it said.

"In the lone case of Ms. Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the UPSC could not detect her number of attempts primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents’ name," the Commission said.

"The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future," the statement added.

The Commission also clarified that it only does a preliminary scrutiny of certificates submitted by the candidates.

"So far as the complaints regarding the submission of false certificates (specifically OBC & PwBD categories) are concerned, the UPSC wishes to clarify that it does only a preliminary scrutiny of the certificates viz. whether the certificate has been issued by the competent authority, the year to which the certificate pertains, issuing date of the certificate, whether there is any overwriting on the certificate, format of the certificate etc." the Commission said.

"Generally, the certificate is taken as genuine, if it has been issued by the competent authority," it added.

"The UPSC neither has the mandate nor the wherewithal to check the veracity of thousands of certificates submitted by the candidates every year," it said.

"However, it is understood that scrutiny and verification of genuineness of certificates is carried out by the authorities mandate with the task," it added.

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